Dive Brief:

• The Senate confirmed Travis Hill as chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Michael Selig to be chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in a Thursday vote. 
• The 53-43 party-line vote puts permanent leaders atop the two financial regulatory agencies, which had lacked figureheads beyond “acting” status since the Trump administration took office in January.
• The White House nominated Hill to lead the FDIC on a permanent basis in September. Selig — who replaces acting chair Caroline Pham — was tapped to lead the CFTC in October, after the Trump administration withdrew its nomination of Brian Quintenz as the agency’s chief. 

Dive Insight:

Since becoming acting chair of the FDIC on the first full day of President Donald Trump’s second term, Hill has pushed for more new bank formation; sought to remove reputational risk as a supervision component and make the mergers-and-acquisitions process more streamlined; and scrapped Obama-era leveraged lending guidance.  

Hill “has demonstrated a strong understanding of both the policy challenges banks face and the need to re-evaluate regulations that have made it harder for them to serve their customers, clients and communities,” American Bankers Association CEO Rob Nichols said in a statement Thursday. 

Hill’s efforts “have already had a meaningful impact, and we look forward to working with him on a range of issues, including the need for a rational regulatory approach to merger applications, developing a sound and transparent framework for indexing regulatory thresholds and the FDIC's important role overseeing the deposit insurance program,” Nichols said.

Consumer Bankers Association CEO Lindsey Johnson, meanwhile, said Hill’s “leadership comes at a pivotal moment as regulators and policymakers work to strengthen the stability, clarity and predictability of the financial regulatory framework,” according to a statement Thursday.

Independent Community Bankers of America CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey, in a statement Thursday, said her organization looks forward to working with Hill, among other policymakers, “to address excessive regulatory burdens on community banks and ensure a level regulatory playing field between banks and nonbank entities.”

“Chairman Hill has demonstrated a clear understanding of the vital role of community banks in local communities and the need for tiered regulations to support local economic growth,” Romero Rainey said.

Not every figure in the banking sphere was as supportive. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, said Hill “must stop stonewalling Congress and the Banking Committee must continue rigorous oversight of his actions.” 

Warren serves as the Senate Banking Committee’s ranking member.

“In his time at the FDIC, Travis Hill has been a rubber stamp for President Trump’s deregulatory Wall Street agenda that is sowing the seeds of another financial crisis,” Warren said in a statement last week. “Hill has also repeatedly withheld information from Congress on the agency’s efforts to address its toxic workplace culture and has gutted the offices responsible for improving it.”

Selig, meanwhile, becomes the CFTC’s 16th chair as legislators consider whether to equip the agency with more authority over digital assets. 

Pham has been the only commissioner at the agency after three other commissioners departed this year. Pham had said she planned to leave the CFTC after a chair is confirmed. Payments company MoonPay announced Wednesday that Pham will be its next chief legal officer.